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FBI probes possible sales of body parts

July 03, 2002|By Items compiled from Tribune news services.

GALVESTON, TEXAS — The FBI is investigating whether a former University of Texas Medical Branch employee sold for personal profit parts of corpses of people who had willed their bodies to science, authorities said Tuesday.

The school has been cooperating with authorities since learning through a routine internal audit earlier this year that an employee in its Willed Body Program may have profited illegally from the sales, said Bob Dogium, FBI spokesman in Houston.

Any body parts sold had been donated to the school for research purposes, Dogium said.

No charges have been filed.

University officials on Tuesday would not discuss details of the alleged sales.

The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that Allen Tyler Jr., 56, of Galveston was fired May 9 as a result of the audit. The newspaper said Tyler was responsible for receiving and shipping all bodies and body parts at the medical school. He could not be contacted Tuesday.